Category: 5: Layout

Newton and Ridley, the brewers best known for their pub, The Rovers Return, are opening a cafe/wine bar nearer the city centre.

The bar is designed to appeal to younger women and sophisticated young men. The brewery has identified a gap in the market and wants to provide a ’sophisticated and relaxed’ venue for the ‘discerning’ drinker. This bar is to be called the French Hen and will be in direct competition with the cheap ‘binge drinking’ venues on the same street. The brewery is also trying to enhance its own image as a ‘respectable’ alcohol vendor.

They want you to develop some ideas for a logo, to be used:

• on covers for the food and cocktail menus

• in colour on the signage outside, and as a cutout for a window detail

• on T-shirts for the staff and paper napkins

• for one side of a beermat, the other will carry advice on sensible drinking.

There are many conventions that have been developed around the marketing of both bars and products to this age range. You need to be conscious the whole time of avoiding clichés and stereotyping.

Draw up at least three ideas to start with. Be critical of your work.

Check it against the information you have here. Will it do what the client wants – and how will you know?

When you have decided which one you are happiest with, mock up the menu covers, the outside sign, the window detail, a T-shirt, paper napkin and beermat. Does it all still work?

Some ideas from research:

Then I did a mind map to try to concentrate my thoughts on what was important in this task.

Sketched out some ideas and then set to work.

I was originally opposed to the idea of using a french hen which is in fact a cock but my husband thought it absolutely necessary for this logo. hence I created two different logos.

FIRST LOGO:

STEP 1:

The first involved tracing the french cock which I found in google images. I then created the french flag using information for the colours which I found online. I superimposed a .PNG file of the cock on to the flag.

STEP 2:

I then created a glass in Illustrator following a YouTube video the link for which I give on my diary. This is a pretty basic glass but it gave me the opportunity to work again with the pen tool. I also learned about reflecting the first half to get a perfect shape. I refreshed my ‘join’ of two points.

STEP 3:

I placed the hen in the glass as a PNG file.

STEP 4:

I added the text. I used Parisish typeface as I thought it fitted the brief. I rotated the cafe name to make it fit into the stem and used 43pt on the bottom text so that it lined up with the edges of the glass.

STEP 5:

I added a gradient behind the whole.

This is the result:

then added the Menu text:

The sign could be printed on some silver metal:

Window Cut out:

I looked up a T-Shirt manufacturer as I wanted to see how it looked on the back. However for a single example it would have cost €32!! So I took a screen snap of the result:

Napkin:

SECOND LOGO:

STEP 1:

This logo is a text based logo. So I chose InDesign to create it. I used a black background.

STEP 2:

I wanted a slim font because I wanted to make the letter “h” into a bottle. The font I used was eccentric standard. I stretched it, saving the letter “h” to be added later.

STEP 3:

I then made the ‘h’ in a bottle shape, copied it and rotated it so that the two ‘h’s’ were two half bottles.

STEP 4:

I then superimposed the bottle on to the outline of grapes.

This is the result:

The Menu cover

The sign:

The window cut out:

The T Shirt:

Napkin:

REFLECTION:

I personally like the second of these logos. I think it is more sophisticated than the first. I think it works better on the T-Shirt but not on the window cut out. I like the napkin with the glass logo. But do not think that it works as an outside sign.

I will gather other opinions. I guess this all makes one think of how to achieve multiple uses of a single logo.

I enjoyed the process of creation as it forced me to revisit some of both my InDesign and Illustrator skills. I think I am becoming more confident in the use of these software programmes.

REFLECTION POST TUTOR FEEDBACK

– You demonstrate strength in your ideas again through your thumbnailing and initial drawings. I particularly like the glass/hen combo and think this could be a winning logo idea!

Whilst the below examples lean towards novelty, I love how the shape of the birds and the glass fit together.. you go one step further in your design by using the flag’s colour to depict the wine and this demonstrates the kind of playful thinking that is crucial to the designer and something I’d encourage you to nurture/expand or document more of in your process.

I tried to create something using my tutor’s idea of the hen as a shape of a glass. I found this almost impossible with my present illustrator skills. This is the result of my efforts.

The whole subtle or not so subtle effect of branding and logos was demonstrated to myself and my husband while in Japan recently. Having no Japanese whatever we were able to pick out advertising for various well know brands.

One day we needed washing powder so standing in the Supermarket in front of the area selling cleaning products we scanned the shelves for anything we recognised. My husband suddenly said that’s DAZ. There was nothing on the packet to indicate this but somehow it resembled our DAZ packets.

Was it the way the colours were placed on the package, some resembled the colours used in Europe, or was it the Name? Hard to say.

This is not a simple design and it is multicoloured but it works. I think that is because it is a household product rather than some expensive object or service that multicolours work.

Analysing some logos that I know very well has been interesting:

With Nike it is only necessary to have the curved line to know the product is Nike. Why is this so iconic? Maybe because it is so ubiquitous in the sports world. It is mono coloured and will work anywhere.

Coca Cola always fascinates me.

The Typography is complicated but the logo is emblazoned on everyones brain. Again there are only two colours red and white. It is simplicity itself if we leave aside the type face.

The World Wildlife Fund is another logo that works so well. B&W is perfect for the panda bear. The illustration is simple – I might even be able to come up with this now!! And it works perfectly. Simplicity and B&W – the perfect recipe for success.

Apple is another logo that you would have had to arrive from space not to recognise. Again it is white on black and simplicity itself. It works in any language and country too.

I wish I had invented the McDonalds “M”…. It isn’t even attractive!!! But it is very successful. Again two colours and very simple. Lit up in Neon you can see it for miles and you know that a burger awaits!!! That’s if you can bear to eat a McDo’s burger!

I wonder what is the secret to becoming a brilliant logo designer? I wonder if the most famous logo designers, Saul Bass (1920 – 1996), Michael Beirut, Paul Rand (1914 – 1996), Milton Glasner, Alan Fletcher (1931 – 2006) and Massimo Vignelli (1931 – 2014), to name but a few, have anything in common. One thing that strikes me is that they are mostly men. But this may be, and probably is a factor of the times they lived in. Many were American but that also was of its time. Americans had money to spend on products so this demanded branding of these products.

This is such a small sample but I feel, in most of the logos I can recall, it is simplicity which dominates in successful logos.

Choose a book by an author you are familiar with. You are going to design two different covers for it, one using illustrations or photography and the other using just type.

Design the whole cover including the spine and back page. Include the title of the book, the author’s name, a brief description of the story and any other information you think is necessary.

As you are working remember that your design is intended to help a reader know what the experience of reading the book will be. Is it a serious text book or an off-beat funny novel? Are the readers expected to be young women or older men and does this matter?

Is it an ‘easy read’ or ‘literary’? Does the publisher have a house style you need to be part of?

When you have finished critique your work – which of your two designs do you feel works the most successfully and why? Make notes in your learning log.

I have chosen Zadie Smith’s Swing Time for reasons I explain in my diary.

I like the simple cover. I can understand why the cover designer chose to use only typography as the story is complicated to represent either graphically or in an image.

It is a story of two young girls, of mixed race, growing up in east London. One is a talented dancer but somewhat out of control. The other has less talent but more ambition. She also has a very pushy Jamaican mother. The less talented girl is the narrator. She finishes school, having passed through a succession of teenage rebellious periods, and lands a job as a PA to an American pop singer. This singer has philanthropic ideals. She wants to help a school in The Gambia. The narrator is shocked by the poverty and cannot understand how someone would not want to leave it. Her struggle is within herself as she tries to find her place in this world. The talented dancer, Tracy, eventually dances in the chorus of a West End show. She is much more content with her background and place in society.

The story deals with friendship, race, ambition, lack of ambition, knowing our boundaries, learning to be happy and satisfied, philantrophy and its consequences.

Problem is how to represent this story on a cover.

I tried out some ideas in my log book.

I wanted to show the race element and the cross pollination of the UK and The Gambia. Swing Time, in the story is about the Narrator’s love of old swing time movies. But I thought, because of the contrasts in the book, black and white, ambition and contentment, poverty and wealth, a swing would best represent these ideas. So I worked on this in InDesign. I am not altogether happy with the result but it was the best I could do.

I tried several covers using only typography. I looked up a reference my tutor had given me but did not feel inspired by the examples. I wanted to keep the idea of mixed race but black and white seemed too stark. I wanted clean simplicity to avoid my usual problem of overworking. I then decided to use a metallic silver tone (Patone silver C). with a black and white title.

REFLECTION:

Although I loved this book and felt a very special affinity with it I found creating the cover extremely difficult. Parts of this book could have been my story and I still intend to write to Zadie Smith to ask her if she had personally experienced the Gambia river crossing. The only difference between the experience recounted in the book and mine was that mine was a great deal more complicated and dangerous…

In the illustration cover, I like the colour of the headings and I like the two country map idea but I feel that the figures are a bit stylised and maybe if I was being very PC they might not be acceptable. But I will await my tutor input.

I prefer the metallic grey simple typographical cover. Maybe this is because the book had a typographical cover or maybe it is because Zadie Smith’s boos have all had this type of cover. I could also be that I inevitably will prefer simplicity.

REFLECTION FOLLOWING TUTOR FEEDBACK

Your illustrated book cover has a certain logic to it and I like how you’ve started to break down and handle your themes but I feel the overall image is a little too disjointed or contrived. It may be worth returning to the visual metaphor task from earlier in the course to try to come up with some keywords which sum up a sentiment of the book or core objects , locations or defining scenes that anchor the text. Depicting your characters and their cultures could be as simple as having contrasting props photographed / spliced together. It would be good also to describe your rationale for the text based image in your log further too.

Further TUTOR reflections in an email:

Stick with the book jacket a little while more but if you don’t come to any conclusions or manage to fully refine try not to worry. A good written reflection of what the sticking points are can be as good as reinventing the wheel and if you end up with some big ideas you can’t pull off – some thumbnails to show your concepts would be just as good. I think sometimes when you read something you are more personally entangled with it can make it quite problematic to find thee all encompassing image you wish for.

Extra pointers from me might be to see if you can go and photograph a location that might be suitable – or if you know someone who could capture this for you that would also be ok; finding an image online and documenting your understanding for the steps you’d need to undertake to license it would also be appropriate). You could also gather up some objects that you could imagine the characters associated with (dance shoes?) and just play around and handles these as props to inspire a set-up that would relate to the book. I think the typographic cover will probably come more easily once you’ve got these key visual metaphors concentrated into one clear focus of concept.

REWORK of BOOK COVER:

Following the above feedback I decided to collect some images that I thought represented the story.

I played around with these in my sketch book.. I then mocked up a cover using the Gambian flag colours and the ballet legs. I added and took away various other images.

Using this mock-up I worked inDesign to create the following new book cover.

The Chance Housing Association has been set up to try and help first time buyers get onto the housing ladder and they want you to develop a brand image for their stationery.

It is important to them that the Association is seen as being different from the other local housing associations – more modern, more helpful and definitely welcoming to young people wanting to buy a house.

They want to use their logo on their letterheads and office stationery and it will also be used somewhere on the sheets that hold the property details. It also needs to be reproducible in the local newspaper and professional trade magazines.

What to do

• Research other housing associations’ and estate agents’ styles. Look at other publications designed for a similar audience. This information should help you identify as much what you don’t want to do as what you do.

• If this was a real job you would need to visit the housing association’s offices and website, if it has one, to see how many decisions they have already made – for example they may have painted their sign silver and dark blue and used a particular font. As the designer you may want to continue with and develop those decisions or change them.

• Using just typography sketch up some designs. You want to come up with at least three initial ideas to show the client. In this instance you can decide which one you think works best to further develop.

• Mock up a letterhead and business card using the logo and house brand. Look in you local newspaper and mock up an advertisement to fit in the paper. Measure the space carefully remembering to leave sufficient margins so your text isn’t cramped. Photocopy in black and white onto cheap paper – does your logo still work? Have any fine lines got lost? Are the differences between colours still discernable?

• Show your designs to your friends and family. What is their feedback?

• If you need to, go back and adjust your artwork. If all is well make up a presentation pack to show the client – in this instance your tutor.

Keep all your work and record the process in your learning log.

Logos from Housing Associations:

I examined these and divided them into those that were created only of Typography.

and then those that had something else added to the logo.

I need to concentrate on the Typography only examples. Interestingly none of these has tried to make an image out of any letter. They are just fairly straightforward. Two have circles with letters inside. Two use script typefaces which I think look amateurish. I like EQUITY best. I think it looks clean and youthful and modern. I’ll think along these lines for my sketches.

I love this quote:

If you can’t draw it from memory, you should at least think twice about it.(1)

I looked up typographic only logos in mono colour to get some inspiration before I start my sketches.

It is really interesting to examine these to see how typography has been used to create really memorable logos. I’m thinking ‘vimeo’,’ Mail Chimp’ and ‘YouTube. The other interesting thing is how letters are used for example ‘NCAD’ (National College of Art and Design) and ARC design. Some logos are framed e.g. FRAME, The Bartlett School of Arcitecturea and Vitra Design Museum. How the letters are placed as in O/R is interesting but sometimes just a simple block capital name like STRIPE works really well.

With this review I set about sketching some logos for the “Chance Housing Association”

Within these sketches there are some ideas I worked on. I was drawn to the idea of using a ladder to express the idea of “getting on the ladder”. On the other hand I wanted my logo to be clean and simple. So I worked on these two ideas and asked a graphic Designer friend to take a look at these attempts. She came up with several suggestions which I will enumerate after I present them:

The Graphic designer felt legibility was a problem. She liked the ladder idea but felt the “H” of the word ‘chance’ was lost. She also felt that the ‘A’ might look better slightly smaller. In addition she liked the pink background of the newspaper ad and suggested this might work better as the logo. For the Newspaper ad she suggested the question in the top left hand corner would look better on a darker strip at the bottom of the ad. I did not show her my business card mock up.

For my second design I chose more clean lines. I preferred this design myself.

Deirdre liked this design also but felt the spacing could be tighter. She also suggested the underline to be aligned with the end letters.For the advertisement she also suggested I play around with the positioning of the elements to get a better visual presentation. She stressed trying to improve the diagonal perspective.

With all of the above suggestions I set to work to improve these two designs and to present my client portfolio, giving the client the choice between two quite different logos.

The results are as follows:

1.1 LOGO

1.2 Letterhead

1.3 Newspaper Advrtisement

1.4 Business Card

REFLECTIONS ON THIS SET

I think it is better than my first effort but I am still a little wary of the pink. I think it might be too feminine. Also there is the issue of the black on the advertisement which, if not a true black, might ‘bleed’ on the newspaper. However I could not work out how to get a CMYK 100% black when I saved the image as a JPEG.

2.1 LOGO

2.2 LETTERHEAD

2.3 NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT

2.4 BUSINESS CARD

REFLECTION ON SECOND SET

I like this set and think it is clean and uncluttered. I think it fits in with the modern trend among your people to return to Bauhaus type design. The red ‘A’ resembles a house but not too graphically. However I wonder if the newspaper ad is eye-catching enough given that it will be printed on a very absorbent off white paper.

REFLECTIONS POST RUTOR FEEDBACK

Chance:

– the discussions around legibility are very pertinent.

– Conceptually your steps/ladder feels the strongest image however the final logo is the cleanest and most balanced and an attractive piece of competently produced design.

– The problems that remain to be resolved surround the triangle erring towards looking like a wigwam and needing to be more overlty rooflike.

– The triangle seems to read most positively if considered as an arrow or a direction – could this be a thing to explore further? (in reflection perhaps rather than any extended re-working).

Because the second logo was so simple I wanted to have some indication therein that it was concerned with housing. Hence I decided to use the triangle/wigwam symbol. In my discussion with my tutor she indicated that this might be interpreted as ‘temporary’ accommodation. However I think the wigwam is accepted more as a symbol for a roof over one’s head or protection than any form of temporary accommodation. I also feel that in the Newspaper advertisement the houses in a ladder form help to solidify the design as a permanent housing association.

I also asked myself if a non solid ‘A’ would better indicate ‘permanent housing.

But I do not think so. I think it looks too like a traffic cone!!!

I also tried a ‘flat’ topped A but this did not look good.

So my conclusion is that the clean logo using a solid red ‘A’ to indicate a house is the best of what I have produced.

This exercise is about how you deal with two different spaces to work in.

You have been asked to design an A3 poster and an accompanying double sided A6 flyer to promote a singing course run by an organisation called SingOut (all one word). They have very little money so want to print these posters on their black and white photocopier. You can use a colour paper if you want.

You may want to include an image such as a drawing or photograph, but be very careful with photos as they tend not to reproduce well on a photocopier particularly if they are colour photos. You will need to check by printing off your design and/or photocopying it.

The information they want to give is:

• Do you love to sing?

• Join us for an exciting opportunity during the day with a professional vocal coach.

Learn to sing different types of music, vocal techniques, meet new people and have fun!

The first thing you need to do is work out if you have all the information you need to fulfill the brief. If not what is missing? Work out the hierarchy of the information. How will you divide your information up to fit on both sides of your flyer? How will you link the design for the poster with that of the flyer? How can you make the poster eyecatching and effective with such a limited palette? Which typeface or faces will you use and why have you made that decision?

When you have finished pin your poster up and critique your work. What do you think?

Keep notes and sketches in your learning log.

RESEARCH:

I looked up a reference my tutor had given me. This were really inspiring.

I love the face in half and half black and white but cannot see how it would fit into this project. I also like the abstracts.

I then narrowed the search to ‘music” B&W posters and used some of these to inspire me. Here is my sketch book. I played with notes and pianos and a bird.

My first efforts are not too satisfactory especially the typefaces used in the bird example:

I don’t like the typeface on the bird and I do not like the “Do you like singing” positioning. I also need to line up the ‘more information’ with the ‘tel’.

Here is next effort:

I like this better but not the “like singing” typeface. So back to the drawing board.

Then I tried another poster using a piano illustration I created:

I like this better. I am especially proud of the star with the use of the ‘scallop’ tool. But this is missing the start day of the coaching so I nee to add it. Where?? And maybe change the love to a heart symbol?

This now contains all the information. I will test both my examples on a few friends and see what they think.

The simpler one was more popular so here is the final version with some of the glitches tidied up..

For the double sided A6 flyer I have used the same piano theme but put less information on the front side since the rear side is available for all the additional information.

and the rear side of the flyer:

REFLECTION AFTER TUTOR FEEDBACK

My favourite image is the second bird composition – here the image works well to frame a central space. My top hint or suggestion would be not to forget the learning you’ve done about grid systems for type these apply to all designs and not just magazine articles or book layout. Could you map a grid system for the flyer that might work better using this kind of suggested template as a starting point? What’s the hierachy of the type?

I took the suggested poster and made a grid in my sketch book. I realised that the “sweet point was to the bottom right so I added the text here. This is the result which I think looks a lot better.

For this exercise you are going to make up a poster list for yourself. It is intended that you keep it pinned to a noticeboard or wall to remind you of the dates and, as it will be there a long time, it needs to look good.

Start by collecting all the birthdays of your friends and family. You’ll need their name and birth date, to decide whether or not you buy them presents or just send a card, text message or email.

When you have all this design a page to include all this information for example:

RESEARCH:

Below are some of the calendars which I liked in a Google search.

I like the idea that the whole year is visible. The colours are a bit dull.

I love the wooden background. The pegs are a little impractical as the birthday papers would fall off.

This would work over an office work station as it looks like anyone’s peg board.

The calendar I have in mind is a little like this.

My handbag birthday calendar will be a little like this.

DESIGN STEPS:

I made a list of family and friends birthdays.

I decided to have vertical boxes for each month. The month would be indicated in a box X25, Y-10, W25, H15.

The month name is the letter in Trajan Pro 24pt.

The baseline shift is -5

The boxes are at 5mm from each other.

The bounding boxes are opts and the colours are from the swatch list

The ‘birthday boxes’ are 25 x25mm and filled with the border colour of the month. I had to reduce the opacity of the dark blue and red to make the print legible.

The date is Ariel 10pt Regular

The name is Ariel 12pt Bold

The symbols are screen shots for Gift, Text, Facebook or Card. Depending on what I send someone for their birthday I use the symbol. If the calendar was to be used for other members of the family it would be better if these were separate and it was possible to stick them on the calendar. Different members give or donut give gifts, cards or messages.

When compete I tried to line up the text horizontally by placing a grid line at the point where I wanted the text to line up. I found this difficult to get precise – not sure why.

Finally having printed an example I realise that some of the background box colours were too strong. I reduced the opacity in these.

VERSIONS OF THE CALENDAR

I decided to make three different versions of the calendar

A simple wall version

I used a simple photo image I had of birds in the sky. I then laminated my wall calendar. I will use this on my wall and expand it.

A mounted wall version or a handbag version

I found a nice piece of old drift wood and sanded it down. Because it was still very wet I dried it out on a radiator. This caused a split to open wider. I used wood glue on this and clamped it. The calendar can be fixed to it with a stud.

But I wanted to keep it for my handbag!!

REFLECTION FOLLOWING TUTOR FEEDBACK:

…..the birthday list is a good, functioning document and a solid example of how mocking-up and making a physical version of something very much helps to inform its application

Find some examples of information graphics. For example bus timetables, city maps, diagrams or representations of statistical data. Look at the way they are designed and try and work out the decisions the designer made. What can you learn from them and when would it be appropriate to use a similar design solution?

For this exercise you are going to describe your immediate surroundings using information graphics; this could be a plan of your desk, the layout of your house, the arrangement of objects in your cupboards or your morning journey; anything will do.

Before you start you will need to think about scale and about how you will break down the information for your design. Create a graphic that represents an aerial or front on view of your location. Be mindful of the hierarchy of the elements in the composition and the dynamics needed to draw the viewer’s eye from one stage to the next. Use typography, numbers and colours to describe what is being represented. You may want to produce a key to help us understand what is being shown, as well as a diagram title to put things in context.

Keep all your sketches and notes in your learning log.

I did some research on info graphic designers. I added this to my “Graphic Designers” page.

This week I was asked to create a trail map for an upcoming event on the island where I live. The curator and I listed what we wanted on the map. She decided that she wanted an A5 folded sheet. The logic for this was that if it was raining a small map would be better than an A4 sheet. The map needs to show the location of 8 art galleries. It also needs to contain the ferry timetable and the phone number for the island bus.

We used the existing ferry timetable which was designed by our ferry crew man. He uses a drone to photograph and has a great deal of computer experience. It is clear and simple to follow. The only problem is that the ferry owner sometimes decides to change the ferry times!!!! We have a mobile phone alert system to inform us of changes…

I think Greg, our ferry crew man, used excel to create this and then probably made a PdF and imported it into Photoshop. I used a map of the island on which we would place the trail. I would have preferred a blank map but the curator wanted the town lands on the map. We did remove some in Photoshop. Below is the only one that existed. I did not have the time to create a new one…

I took the map into InDesign and added the red dots. I numbered each dot and put a list of the artists on the inside of the folded sheet. We did not have all the relevant information so it is still a work in progress.

This is a very simple information graphic. I looked up some others on the web. Below is a screen snap of some.

I had never really considered ways to demonstrate information graphically. I have worked with Excel and produced histograms and pie charts. But these were produced automatically. I have added colours to differentiate information contained therein. But I never gave much thought to the effectiveness of what I was creating. I assumed most of these info graphics were created in Illustrator.

I have wanted, for a long time, to create an information map for visitors to my garden. Time and lack of inspiration have not advanced this project…. But now I can use this exercise to, hopefully, produce something which will be of use to me in the future.

This site gives the ten best infographc designs. These are mostly about ways of gardening rather than mapping a garden. I like this one below about composting. It does not give much useful information but it is attractive. The colours are ‘earthy’

I like the way the following one is set out with the main map of the design in the centre and the information on either side. I could use something like this with the garden site in the middle and plant lists etc on either side.

I think both graphics were probably created in Illustrator. The second one is the sort of map/information sheet I would like to produce for my garden. However I find it a little too fussy for my needs.

This is an amazing info graphic about using recycled items in a garden. This is something I am really interested in and use continually. I would like to add the information about my own recycled items on my graphic. But again it might make the map too confusing.

This is not a very accurate map as we have purchased a little more land since this map was created. I will correct it in photoshop before using. I will use this in my log to mind map what I would like to be included on it.

This is the google map of our garden:

Worked on the outline map in my log. I like the result.

On the left I listed what I wanted to include. I think the map I have produced is a little too fussy so I will scale it down in Illustrator.

Having created my symbols I placed them on the map in Illustrator. I added a key for symbol explanation. I also added a little information about my garden and house.

Here is the result:

REFLECTION:

I think the above map is a reasonable start to my project of producing a garden plan for visitors to my garden. I like my hand drawn map better as it contains more detail. But I think it might be too detailed and a little confusing for visitors.

I will give it to a few friends who know my garden and see what they think.

Deirdre Ní Luasaigh

Hi Nuala

I love it!!

My comments in general

Great clarity. Clarity in the garden sketch as well as in the key to the left. This is hugely difficult to achieve and in my view critical to all good design, but especially so for infographics.

The piece of writing is great and simple and again easy to understand.

To pick out modifications, two things struck me.

‘Studio’ word is small and difficult to read on the sketch. Possibly could use a letters system on the sketch to identify ‘house’ , ‘ruin’ & ‘studio’ connected to the key on the left eg and a dot with the letter inside for each building on the sketch

8 Buildings:

a house

b ruin

c studio

2: There is more detail in the writing that does not quite match the key – references to ‘new house’ and ‘old house’ , ‘stream’­ and ‘the elms’ Maybe find a way to include these in the key as well.
Deirdre Ní Luasaigh

MONA:

Need something to indicate the entrance…

So here is the final version:

Well I thought it was the final version until I used it for this weekend. I had the garden open to the public for an Open Islands Festival. I gave out my Infographics and asked for comments. One lady who was a book editor and proof reader gave me very useful feedback. She indicated spelling errors, I had a comma at the end of the tree paragraphic and not at the end of shrub paragraph. I had a space before the “The” in the second last paragraph on the right. I have corrected all these and her is the Final, final result!

REFLECTION FOLLOWING TUTORS REPORT & SKYPE SESSION

Both of these tasks seem to have been beneficial for you ; the birthday list is a good, functioning document and a solid example of how mocking-up and making a physical version of something very much helps to inform its application. I think it’s fantastic you chose to map your garden and this is also a strong example of you using the GD1 course with good personal application. I hope this kickstarts a long line of garden maps – with practice these will become more proficient and just what you want them to be (I must say I did get quite excited about the house being used to raise Elven children!). I, like you also appreciate the hand drawn version and its detail ; if you fancy scanning this for me I’d be happy to spend a short time during our skype showing you how you could digitally enhance / colour this to make more of it.

Following this advice I looked at my had drawn map again and photographed it and took it into Photoshop. I converted it to B&W and colorised it. thought the garden trees etc. were self explanatory but I wanted to add the tex about the house and its history. I hand wrote this and soaked the sheet in cod coffee to make a sepia effect but this did not work. So I hand wrote it not to printed sheet and re-c opined it before having it professionally printed. I have included this in my portfolio.